IMarEST RESPONDS TO MARINE BILL CONSULTATION

The request by Defra for interested bodies and stakeholders to respond to the Marine Bill White Paper has been accepted with enthusiasm by the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology (IMarEST).

The Institute’s response to the consultation has been prepared by the IMarEST Technical Affairs Committee (TAC) with input from the wider membership. The response represents the view of the TAC, not necessarily the views of the IMarEST membership as a whole. IMarEST also adds its support and endorsement to the submissions made by the Interagency Committee for Marine Science and Technology, the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton; and Maritime UK. 

“We welcome the opportunity to respond to the consultation; and would like to congratulate Defra on such a comprehensive document; and commend them for involving stakeholders from the conception to finalisation of the Bill,” says Graham Hockley, Director, Policy and Professional Affairs, IMarEST. 

“Not surprisingly our TAC has expressed concern over some issues and these are now lodged with the Marine Bill Team at Defra. An original criticism made by the Institute of the White Paper was the lack of definition of overall objectives and prioritisation and as such we are even more encouraged to see that a further consultation has just been announced allowing organisations and individuals to comment on the high level objectives and the marine policy statement”

A dozen highly valid points
The full IMarEST submission can be found at www.imarest.org/responses.   “In all we make over a dozen key points in our submission,” says Graham Hockley. “These include specific comments about the independent development of policies by devolved administrations; the need to avoid different geographical areas having different targets, indicators, plans, measures and being organised by different agencies – we are great believers in the benefit of ‘joined up thinking’; and our TAC remains concerned about the omission of crown dependencies and British overseas territories from the Marine Bill.

“The IMarEST TAC is also concerned about the omission of the oil and gas industry from the Bill in a number of ways that we expand upon in our submission; members also want to see an iterative approach to link the regional strategies with marine planning and port development; they want the accessibility to data addressed and the increasing commercialisation of data. IMarEST also has significant concerns that both the human and financial resources allocated will prove inadequate for the activities expected of the Marine Management Organisation (MMO); wants to see the Marine Data and Information Network (MEDIN) as a major partner in the MMO; and also believes there should be memoranda of understanding between the MMO and Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish equivalent organisations.

“Finally, and significantly, we believe that the £181m calculated for marine planning may be inadequate, given past marine experience, potentially undermining the whole process of planning.”

The IMarEST is an international membership body and learned society for marine professionals, with 50 branches and 15,000 members in over a hundred countries globally. The Institute’s role is to promote inter-disciplinary understanding of marine engineering, marine science and marine technology in order to uphold and advance the knowledge and status of professionals across the international marine community. Further information on the work of IMarEST is available at www.imarest.org

Further press information from:
Judith Patten @ JPPR
34 Ellerker Gardens, Richmond, Surrey, TW10 6AA, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 20 8241 1912; Fax: +44 (0) 20 8940 6211
Email: judithpatten@wwmail.co.uk

or

Suki Kalsi @ IMarEST
80 Coleman Street, London EC2R 5BJ, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7382 2600:  Fax: +44 (0) 20 7382 2670
Email: suki.kalsi@imarest.org